A pneumatic tire provided with a surface fastener on an inner surface of the tire in order to facilitate mounting of accessories such as noise absorbing members has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-044503A). In pneumatic tires, noise absorbing members are provided in a cavity portion in order to reduce resonance generated in the cavity portion; the abovementioned pneumatic tire with surface fastener allows for easy mounting and removal of accessories such as noise absorbing members as necessary.
However, when an unvulcanized tire provided with a surface fastener on the inner surface of the tire is molded and a typical vulcanizer equipped with a vulcanization bladder is used to vulcanize the unvulcanized tire with surface fastener, the pressure exerted by the vulcanization bladder during vulcanization may crush the engaging elements of the surface fastener. When the engaging elements are crushed, the problem arises that the mounting state of the accessories such as noise absorbing members becomes unstable, and, in some instances, the accessories cannot be mounted.
In view of such drawbacks, an arrangement has been proposed in which the spaces between the engaging elements of the surface fastener are filled with unvulcanized rubber to form a protective rubber layer in which the engaging elements are embedded, and the protective rubber layer prevents the engaging elements of the surface fastener from being crushed during vulcanization (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-272954A).
However, it is necessary to press a heated and softened unvulcanized rubber sheet against the surface fastener in order to fill the spaces between the engaging elements of the surface fastener with unvulcanized rubber, and the engaging elements may undergo plastic deformation during laminating at such high temperatures. As a result, the protective rubber layer described above cannot be considered sufficiently effective in preventing crushing of the engaging elements of the surface fastener.